Editing History of Afghanistan (section)

=== Gandhara Kingdom (c. 1500 – 535 BCE) ===
{{Main|Gandhāra (kingdom)}}

[[File:Early Vedic Culture (1700-1100 BCE).png|thumb|Gandhara Kingdom in [[Vedic Period|Early Vedic Period]], around 1500 BCE]]

The [[Gandhara|Gandhara region]] centered around the [[Peshawar Valley]] and [[Swat River|Swat]] river valley, though the cultural influence of "Greater Gandhara" extended across the Indus river to the [[Taxila]] region in [[Pothohar Plateau]] and westwards into the [[Kabul River|Kabul]] and [[Bamyan]] valleys in Afghanistan, and northwards up to the [[Karakoram]] range.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Neelis |first1=Jason |title=Early Buddhist Transmission and Trade Networks: Mobility and Exchange Within and Beyond the Northwestern Borderlands of South Asia |date=19 November 2010 |publisher=BRILL |isbn=978-90-04-18159-5 |page=232  |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GB-JV2eOr2UC |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Eggermont |first1=Pierre Herman Leonard |title=Alexander's Campaigns in Sind and Baluchistan and the Siege of the Brahmin Town of Harmatelia |date=1975 |publisher=Peeters Publishers |isbn=978-90-6186-037-2 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nG0_xoDS3hUC |language=en |pages=175–177}}</ref>

During the 6th century BCE, Gandhāra was an important imperial power in north-west South Asia, with the [[Kashmir Valley|valley of Kaśmīra]] being part of the kingdom, while the other states of the Punjab region, such as the [[Kekaya]]s, [[Madra]]kas, [[Uśīnara]]s, and [[Shivi]]s being under Gāndhārī suzerainty. The Gāndhārī king [[Pushkarasarin|Pukkusāti]], who reigned around 550 BCE, engaged in expansionist ventures which brought him into conflict with the king [[Pradyota]] of the rising power of [[Avanti (region)|Avanti]]. Pukkusāti was successful in this struggle with Pradyota.<ref name="Prakash">{{cite journal |last=Prakash |first=Buddha |date=1951 |title=Poros |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/41784590 |journal=Annals of the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute |volume=32 |issue=1 |pages=198–233 |doi= |jstor=41784590 |access-date=12 June 2022}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Jain |first=Kailash Chand |url= |title=Malwa Through the Ages |date=1972 |publisher=[[Motilal Banarsidass]] |isbn=978-8-120-80824-9 |location=[[Delhi]], [[India]] |pages=98–104 |author-link=}}</ref>

By the later 6th century BCE, the founder of the [[Persians|Persian]] [[Achaemenid Empire]], [[Cyrus the Great|Cyrus]], soon after his conquests of [[Medes|Media]], [[Lydia]], and [[Neo-Babylonian Empire|Babylonia]], marched into Gandhara and annexed it into his empire.<ref name="CAH">{{cite book |author-last=Young |author-first=T. Cuyler |url= |title=The Cambridge Ancient History |date=1988 |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |isbn=978-0-521-22804-6 |editor1-last=Boardman |editor1-first=John |editor1-link=John Boardman (art historian) |volume=4 |location=[[Cambridge]] |pages=1–52 |chapter=The early history of the Medes and the Persians and the Achaemenid empire to the death of Cambyses |author-link= |editor2-last=Hammond |editor2-first=N. G. L. |editor2-link=N. G. L. Hammond |editor3-last=Lewis |editor3-first=D. M. |editor3-link=David Malcolm Lewis |editor4-last=Ostwald |editor4-first=M. |editor4-link=Martin Ostwald}}</ref> The scholar [[K. D. Sethna|Kaikhosru Danjibuoy Sethna]] advanced that Cyrus had conquered only the trans-Indus borderlands around Peshawar which had belonged to Gandhāra while Pukkusāti remained a powerful king who maintained his rule over the rest of Gandhāra and the western Punjab.<ref>{{cite book |last=Sethna |first=Kaikhosru Danjibuoy |url= |title=Problems of Ancient India |date=2000 |publisher=Aditya Prakashan |isbn=978-8-177-42026-5 |location= |pages=121–172 |chapter=To Pāṇini's Time from Pāṇini's Place |author-link=K. D. Sethna}}</ref>